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After a third-place finish in the season-opener at Myrtle Beach Speedway on March 18, Andy Seuss didn’t rule out running the full Whelen NASCAR Modified Tour schedule if the team ran well in the Icebreaker 150 at Thompson. Suess did exactly that on Sunday but also left with a poor finish and a destroyed race car.

He was responsible for neither.

A pit stop after a lap 128 caution backed the two-time Southern Whelen NASCAR Modified Tour champion down to ninth place. Once he was back in traffic, Seuss found himself getting into messes caused by other drivers, wrecking with just five laps to go after getting clipped from behind.

“We were trying to make our way through the field, and some guys kind of lost their heads in the outside groove,” Seuss said. “One guy turned another, we almost got through, but we were tagged in the right rear. Just turned us head-on into the wall.”

The brand-new car may not race again, according to Seuss.

“We’re trying to figure out if we can even clip it, or if it’s destroyed,” Seuss explained. “Took a hard hit. It broke the driveshaft out of the yoke, and the throttle stuck, so hopefully the motor isn’t damaged as well. Just a lot of damage, and with just a few laps to go, it’s really unfortunate.”

Seuss and the team aren’t deciding on whether or not to race the NAPA Spring Sizzler 200 at Stafford on April 30th yet. But the poor finish and heavily damaged piece certainly can’t help that cause.

“Unfortunately, not only did we have the bad run that sort of hurts the momentum, but the cost to go to Stafford meant we needed a good run  so we could have a little purse money to get there,” commented Seuss on the prospect of racing in three weeks. Now we’ve gonna have to spend a lot more to fix this thing, so I don’t know whether we’ll get to Stafford or not.”

His day started well enough, running inside the top-3 for much of the early portion of the race. Even with his brakes fading, he remained inside the top-5. It was a win-contending car.

“We were battling up in the top three there, brakes were starting to fade,” Seuss said. “I had to back up my corners. I lost a couple spots, but when you’re running top five here with no brakes, you’re pretty good.”

Unfortunately, the 30-year-old just couldn’t make it to the finish.

Paul Lambert is an aspiring collegiate journalist. A writer and broadcaster, Paul's excited to cover New England short track racing in 2022. Paul has also been published in the Boston Herald, Speedway Illustrated and on Autoweek.com.

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